


Rise of the Jedi: Star Wars Episode 8

by Benji1452



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Ahch-To, Chewie - Freeform, D'Qar, Droids, F/M, Jedi, Lightsaber, Loss of hands, Millennium Falcon - Freeform, Sith, The Force, The Force Awakens, the resistance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-06-08 09:39:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6849238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benji1452/pseuds/Benji1452
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My version of Episode 8. Flashbacks, Jedi training, epic lightsaber duels, the Force, Sith Lords, the reveal of Rey's parents, and a sprinkle of romance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

What is love? When you think about it, does it really make sense at all? And how would one define it? An intense feeling of admiration and affection towards a person. Or, a deep attachment to someone you care about. Is it something that just happens in a second, or does it occur over time, building up, making the bond stronger and stronger during every second you spend with that person? Does it ever truly go away, or does it just leave you broken, forever connected to the feeling of loss and failure and sorrow? A hollow hole in your heart, unable to be mended or filled again with the love that was once there.

      What about Luke, who loved his sister and friends, but left anyway. What about Ben, who loved his parents, like anyone would, but still unforgivably turned his back to his family and took his first steps down the path of the dark side. What about her parents, who should have loved her, but left her to care for herself, alone on a desert planet with no one but the unkind and untrustworthy creatures who dwelled there. Is that love? Is that how it's supposed to be? Leaving all you care about behind, turning your back to those who raised you, abandoning a small child on a dangerous planet? How is that fair? How is that right?

      She had started to give up on "love," whatever it really was. Years upon years of waiting, of hoping that someone, anyone, would come back for her, save her from the life she had come to know and hate. No one came. No one returned to bring her home. Yes, she had learned, with time, to take care of herself, to defend herself, to feed herself. But she had been slowly running low on one vital thing: hope.

      In all the evil of the world, in all the times when people had let her down, there was still one person who stayed by her side, who came back for her when no one else would. Finn. Finn, who was taken from a family he never knew. Finn, who was raised to do one thing. Finn, who refused to fight for the First Order because he knew in his heart it was wrong. Finn, who ran right into her and dragged her along on an adventure she didn't ask for, but still stood by her when everything else fell apart.

      And now Finn, the one person she had come to care for in all the galaxy's madness, was laying lifelessly on a hard slab of metal they called a bed, because of her. Because when she couldn't fight, he did. Because that evil bastard named Kylo Ren had slashed his back with the deadliest weapon in the universe.

      Plenty of people had warned her about revenge. About the endless abyss of vengeance you seek, a black hole that once you go down, you can never return from. Just like the Dark Side. But that didn't stop her from wanting it. It didn't stop her from craving the feeling of that moment when she could have killed Kylo Ren, the glorifying moment when she could have brought down that lightsaber as hard as she could with as much force and hate as she could muster. But she stopped, turned away, recoiled from the temptation of the Dark Side. Somehow, she knew it was wrong, she knew how easy it would be to be seduced by the Dark Side.

      And that's why she sat there, in that uncomfortable plastic chair, restlessly tapping her foot on the floor, as if somehow he would wake up and everything would be fine again. Soon, she would leave to find Luke Skywalker, the legendary Jedi Knight known for ending the terrible reign of Emperor Palpatine and the evil doings of Darth Vader. Soon, she would be training with him, now a Jedi Master, learning to control her powers and desire for revenge.

      Resistance doctors rushed past the closed door behind her. The rhythmic beeping of machines surrounded her, swallowing the room in awareness of the injured man on the table, refusing to let her forget for more than one moment. A clock ticked away time somewhere in the background, reminding her of the mission ahead and counting down the time until she was scheduled to board the Millennium Falcon and leave the Resistance Base.

      In the table in front of her, Finn's motionless body rested, as if he were in a deep, unshakable sleep. The metal bed was placed in the center of the room, surrounded by annoying beeping computers and machines, apparently keeping him in a stable condition. Wires hung loosely, connecting to his wrists and chest, monitoring any sign of change in him. Nothing yet but the rare and sudden spasms of movement caused by the reflexes in his muscles that sometimes reacted to touch.

      He looked so...calm and peaceful. The slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. The tiny hint of a smile playing on the edge of his lips. The way his fingers rested, finally still for once, laying next to his body on the table. Whenever she had seen him, they were always in immediate danger or there was some major cause for worry. He had always seemed so troubled, so focused on surviving and their mission of safely returning BB-8 to the Resistance Base. But not without good reason of course. They usually always were in danger and had a unobjectionably good cause for panicking.

      Behind her, the door clicked open and someone entered the small room, shutting the door after her. The woman cautiously took a seat next to the brave girl already there, afraid to startle her. "Rey," General Organa said, attempting to catch the attention of the young woman. "It's almost time."

      Rey looked down, breaking out of her own trance, and stared at her lap. She started playing with the hem of her new, still unfamiliar clothes. General Organa had given them to her several days ago, and they fit perfectly, but for some reason they still didn't feel...right.

      Leia gave up on trying to obtain her eye contact, and looked over at Finn, the ex-Stormtrooper who courageously fought her son. No, not her son, Kylo Ren, the man who left, the man who...who killed Han....Leia copied Rey's movement and bent her head down, telling herself that it wasn't her son who killed his father, no, it was Kylo Ren. Her son was still there, under everything else, her son, her little boy. After a moment, she was able to murmur, "He's...he's still there you know. He'll come back to us."

      Honestly, Leia wasn't sure who she was talking about. Her son, who she wished with everything she had was still the innocent little boy she raised, but deep down knew was gone, or Finn, the brave young man who fought Kylo Ren. Leia could see he deeply cared for Rey, and she could also tell Rey was trying hard to keep herself together and not fall apart due to Finn's injuries. So, in all truth, she had no idea who she was trying to comfort: Rey, or herself.

      Rey couldn't help but feel guilty. If she had only been a little stronger, if she had only been able to control the Force better, Finn wouldn't have been hurt. He wouldn't have been laying on that table in a coma with a nasty scar on his back as a reminder of her failure. Maybe it would be her on that table. Maybe neither of them would be on that table. She didn't know. All she knew was Finn was seriously hurt, and it was her fault.

      She drew her gaze back onto Finn's motionless body. "What if...what if he wakes up, and I'm not here?" Rey mumbled quietly, barely audible to Leia.

      "Rey, you have to understand. This isn't your fault." If anything it's mine.

      She didn't respond, she just started tapping her foot again, deep in thought. Leia signed heavily and stood up, turning towards the closed door and placing a hand on the handle to open it. Before she left, she said, "And Rey? The Force is with you. Always."

      After she heard the click of the door close behind her, Rey slowly stood up, and took a step closer to the bed Finn was laying on. She shakily grabbed his hand in her own and held it, trying not to think about how cold it was. Or how the last time she held his hand, he was the one grabbing her's and they were running for their lives and they had just jumped over a spilled crate of stolen items and they were yelling at each other...and that was how their journey started. And hopefully, this was not how it would end. She wasn't sure exactly how or why, but somehow she knew, this wouldn't be the end.

      She slowly bent over, placing his hand back on the table, and stared down at his face. His eyes were closed, but they seemed to flutter under his dark eyelids, as if he knew she was there, standing directly over him. She leaned down and gingerly placed a small kiss on his forehead, only standing up again after a few peaceful seconds of silence.

      "We'll see each other again," Rey said firmly, not completely certain that Finn could even hear her speaking. "I believe that."


	2. I

_Breathe in. Breath out._

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

_A Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him._

_It surrounds, penetrates, binds the galaxy together._

_It is what gives him his strength, his power, his control._

_Breathe in. Breath out._

   Rey stood perfectly still, her feet planted firmly onto the ground, her eyes squeezed tightly shut in concentration. Her hand was outstretched in the direction of a decent-sized boulder positioned at the edge of the cliff, just barely tilting off the steep ledge. Her focus on it was the only thing keeping it from rolling off of the side of the jagged precipice. She took deep breathes, as she had been instructed to, attempting to clear her mind and focus on the objective of the difficult exercise.

  _Breathe in. Breathe out._

  
   "Focus, Rey. Focus is key," informed a deep voice coming from behind her. It was calm yet simultaneously raspy and gravelly from years upon years of a lonely silence on a lonely island. Having no one to talk to for two continuous and long-lasting decades had the expected result, especially since he had been speaking more in the past several weeks than he had in those two decades.

  
   Rey tried to squeeze her eyes closed even harder, as if that would suddenly grant the impossible gift of focus, the thing she needed most at the moment. Ever since Rey had arrived on Ahch-To, she had only been training with a lightsaber and with daily meditation rituals. This was the first time since her battle with Kylo Ren that she had even attempted to use the Force. Rey remembered it clearly, a vivid image unmistakably displaying the events of that night still fresh in her memory. She remembered the distinct sensation of power, the the surge of energy that coursed through her body. She remembered the look of horror on Kylo Ren's cut and bloody face, the expression of his disbelief. How could some scavenger from a desert planet be stronger, more powerful than he, Kylo Ren, grandson of the most powerful Sith Lord and apprentice of Supreme Leader Snoke? How could _he_ be defeated by some _girl_ with a lightsaber? How could–

  
   "Rey!"

  
   Her eyes sprung open as her head shot up in surprise, completely shocked by her Master's outburst. All at once, she lost all concentration and the focus she had been able to keep, just barely holding the boulder up, had vanished. The huge rock trembled, shaking the earth at their feet for only a few moments, before it collapsed over the edge of the cliff and plunged down to the vast sea, hundreds of feet below.

  
   Rey had crouched down to the ground, lowering herself to maintain the little balance she had, before standing straight again. She checked her surroundings, scanning the mountain top around her. She found her Master a little ways away sitting down on the green grass at their feet. She joined him, copying his actions and plopping down next to him. Rey stared at him for a few long moments, before looking away, towards the beautiful view of the ocean stretching for miles in front of them. Normally, she would have asked if he was alright, if something had happened, he didn't usually take a break like this during her training, but something...changed. The Force seemed to...it felt as if it was buzzing. A soft hum in the back of her head.

  
   "Patience, my young Padawan. One cannot learn the ways of the Force in such little time. You must learn to focus, not get distracted so easily," Luke Skywalker said, his eyes closed and his wrinkled hands resting on his upwardly turned knees, legs crossed under him.

  
   "Master, I _was_ concentrating. I had focus. You just startled me," Rey said, trying to understand his motives.

  
   "That's my point. Focus is not guaranteed to last forever. Every battle, although it may not be a fair fight, is expected to have a few surprises, and every opponent is expected to hide some tricks up their sleeve. You must learn to push past any interruptions and continue your effort to use the Force. No disruption should be able to change that."

  
   Rey didn't say anything, she just looked away, back at the comforting sight of the ocean in front of them. She was still getting used to the views, especially after living on a sandy desert planet her whole life. Other than Tokodana and all the greenery it provided, Rey had never been on such a lush planet, nor had she seen so much nature surrounding her at once.

  
   Luke sighed, starting to get up. "That is all for today."

 

•••

_Rey stood, completely frozen, staring in awe at the hooded figure in front of her. He was facing the ocean, a beautiful view from where they were standing at the top of a tall mountain. Next to him, a thin slab of stone jutted out of the ground from the other rocks piled there, as if it was meant to be a grave._

_  
He must have sensed the unfamiliar presence, the strange new sensation of another's existence, because he slowly moved to face her, turning his back on the ocean and the mysterious grave stone. Neither had spoken yet and an utter silence surrounded the two, a not entirely uncomfortable absence of sound. Wind whipped loose strands of hair in Rey's face, but instead of pulling back a tendril that had escaped from the lowest of her three buns, she ignored it, opting to let it flutter freely in the cool air and continue to stare in shock and amazement. Surely this couldn't be..._

_  
The man gradually raised his hands, one of which was a mechanical prosthetic, attached from somewhere under his robes. He lifted the hood to reveal the worn, wrinkled face of once handsome man. His long hair was graying to match the unkempt beard on his face, and his blue eyes pierced her dark brown ones intently. He wore long, somewhat dirty gray and white robes, disheveled and ruffling at his feet in the strong breeze._

_  
Rey finally broke eye contact, realizing she had almost forgotten, and looked down at the bag slung over her shoulder. After opening the sack and grabbing the item, the whole reason she had journeyed to the island, she held it up in front of her, reaching her arm out as if gesturing to give it to him. She stared up at him pleadingly, desperately._

_  
An offering._

_  
A plead._

_  
A last hope._

_  
Luke Skywalker gazed down at the young girl, thinking about how she was unknowingly holding the most powerful, most dangerous weapon in the galaxy. He glanced down at it. The long silver cylinder hadn't changed at all since he had last seen it, flying through the air and disappearing beneath him, somewhere in Cloud City._

_  
His lightsaber._

_  
His first lightsaber_ _._

  
   _It originally belonged to his father, Anakin Skywalker. During the time he owned it though, he didn't know that it really belonged to the one man he fought with it. He wouldn't believe it. Not until the mere minutes later that everything he thought he knew about himself was a lie._

_  
Now though, his lightsaber was in the capable hands of this girl. She felt...different. The Force surrounding her was special, stronger, more alive. She was the same girl from all those years ago. He was sure of it. "Why are you here?" Luke asked warily, his voice deep and scratchy from years of silence. "Who sent you? My sister?"_

_  
Rey was completely shocked. It was true, this man really was the legendary Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker. The same man who was rumored to be stronger than even Darth Vader. But that was only rumor from merchants and fellow scavengers looking for a good story. She never...she never thought any of it was true. "Well...yes--but," Rey started, then stopped herself, beginning again. "I am here to return your lightsaber," she said, lifting the infamous weapon again._

_  
Luke narrowed his eyes skeptically, unsure, and took a step forward, reaching out to take the lightsaber out of her hands. He held it, staring down at it with a hard intensity. Without looking up, he said, "Thank you. But I must be going."_

_  
He promptly turned away from her and headed down the side of the mountain, the exact path that she had arrived from, carefully stepping over the dangerously positioned rocks and avoiding the edge of the steep cliff, as if he had done so thousands of times before._

_  
Rey stood, confused, and staring at the place he had just been standing. After a moment, she realized what he said, and abruptly whirling around, dashed off after the legendary Luke Skywalker._

_  
"Wait! Luke!" Rey called after the man as she chased to keep up with his surprisingly quick pace. She jumped over a sharp rock pointing hazardously out of the ground and yelled out again. "Wait up!"_

  
  _Luke turned in the opposite direction from the path and followed a very thin, very close (probably too close) to the edge trail. On one side, the rocky surface of mountain was standing tall with loose pebbles falling from it, occasionally hitting Rey's  head, while Luke seemed to be able to avoid them without looking up to see them, nor falling off the edge of the cliff. On the other side, the steep drop of the ledge was threatening to kill her, warning her to keep back, or it would throw her over the side, and she would plummet down the hundreds of feet until she'd hit the bottom. Rey kept a hand running across the mountainside, attempting to keep up with Luke while simultaneously trying not to die an unpleasant death._

_  
Rey almost slipped as the rock underneath her feet crumbled, breaking in half and sending one side over the edge. She tightly grabbed hold of a giant branch growing from the towering wall of dirt next to her, jumping up from the ground. The rest of the slab of rock slid over the cliff, and Rey was left hanging onto the branch. She looked down, now able to see the ocean hundreds of feet below her, before tightening her grip and starting to swing. She pushed until she had a nice, steady movement swaying back and forth. She waited, then pushed off, jumping and landing on the other side. Standing up again, she took off, determined to keep up with Luke._

_  
But when she looked up, he was nowhere in sight. He seemed to have just disappeared in the few moments of distraction. She continued to follow the path until it led around the bend of the mountain. Then, it widened, and she was no longer standing on a narrow stretch of rock, but a space open enough to lay down comfortably, without the constant worry of rolling over the edge. Behind her, the mountainside looked as if it had opened up, and a huge gap was left in its place. A cave._

_  
Rey cautiously took her first steps inside, careful to not make a sound. Luke must be in here, she thought. It would explain why it seemed like he disappeared. "Luke!"_

  
   _Rey looked around, taking in her new surroundings, the daylight from outside lighting the small cave. A bed pushed in one corner, a table in the other. A good-sized chest was sitting along the side of the cave, left untouched for years. If it weren't for the moisture in the air of the wet cave, it would have surely been covered in dust. With only a bed, a poorly-constructed table and chair, and a moth-eaten rug laying on the stone floor, the small home held only the bare necessities (something Rey wasn't too unfamiliar of.)_

_  
He stood with his back to her, fussing with something on the table in the back. A light suddenly shone from behind him as he lit a candle, lighting the back of the cave much brighter than before. He stayed facing away from her._

_  
"Luke, please," Rey said, getting annoyed. "You wont even hear what I have to say."_

_  
He grunted. "Fine, then say it."_

_  
Rey was shocked. She didn't believe the famous Luke Skywalker could act this way. Why should he, she didn't do anything to him. "Look. There are people out there who are counting on you to come back. To fix this mess that your nephew has made. You think Han died for you to just walk away?" Luke's shoulders seemed to slacken. "You have felt it, haven't you?"_

_  
He turned around, looking at her in disbelief. "Of course I've felt it! He was my friend!"_

_  
"Then why won't you listen to me? Don't you understand?"_

_  
"I understand that this is my fault. That the galaxy was in severe danger because of...Kylo Ren," he sneered at the ridiculous name. "Who do you think trained him? Who do you think taught him to use that stupid lightsaber he swings around?"_

  
  _Rey was silent. She didn't respond, just stared at him. He, Luke Skywalker, trained Kylo Ren, his nephew, murderer of his father Han Solo, apprentice of Supreme Leader Snoke. He trained a Jedi, now a powerful and dangerous Sith._

_  
"Rey," Luke said quietly, his voice full of raw emotion, ashamed of his confession. "I still cannot return with you. If I do, only pain and suffering will return with me."_

_  
She was taken aback, confused. "How...how do you know my name?"_

_  
"That is not the point. The point is that it's still very dangerous for me to return. It isn't safe for me." Then he added quickly, under his breath, "It isn't safe for anyone anymore."_

_  
"That's why I need you to come back with me!" When Luke didn't respond at all, Rey scoffed in frustration. She didn't understand how someone could be so selfish. Didn't he get it? Wasn't he able to grasp the sheer importance of his presence at the Resistance? People needed him. And he what? Sat doing nothing on an island for thirty years? "Fine, I'll just have to train myself." She turned around, ready to leave. Without giving a last look to the cave, she stepped out into the daylight, before a voice called out after her._

__  
"Wait," Luke spoke desperately, yet somewhat reluctantly. "I'll...I will train you. But here, on Ahch-To."  
Rey moved to face him again, almost suspicious of his quick change-of-mind. She meant what she said. She was fully prepared to return to D'Qar on the Millennium Falcon without Luke. She was ready to train herself, to push her limits, to learn the ways of the Force on her own. "Really? You'll teach me?"

_  
"Yes. I will train you to be the best Jedi the Galaxy has seen in the last thirty years. I will prepare you for the menacing threat the Dark Side will surely bring when the First Order rises again. And I'll do it right this time, I won't mess this up like I did Ben," Luke Said firmly, resolute in his decision, a hint a rueful sorrow in his voice. "Rey, I'm afraid that you are now the Galaxy's last hope."_


	3. II

_Ruins of Cloud City. 20 years after the Battle of Endor_

 

Junk.

      Junk.

      Scrap piece of a droid.

      More junk.

      A mysterious figure hunched over in the rubble, rummaging through a crumbling ditch that had caved in on the ground. He looked something over quickly, before tossing the item over his shoulder and moving on to the next pile. It was just starting to get dark outside, making it harder to see anything in front of his eyes clearly. Another scavenger was working not too far off, sifting through a huge pile of rubbish. The cool air ruffled though his dirty robes and chilled him to the bone. All he could do was wrap his robes around his body tighter and keep digging.

      Most of the clutter was junk. Scraps from old ships, a broken park ripped off a droid, sometimes an ancient blaster, sometimes a piece of wood that resembled the leg of a chair. But none of that was worth anything. He couldn't get a smuggler to take anything like that, never mind get a good deal on it.

      The hooded figure pulled out a bent piece of white plastic from the scrap pile, before throwing it aside and looking down again. Then, he noticed something. Shiny, long, what looked to be in all one piece. Something _very_ sellable. He lowered himself closer to the ground, sitting on his knees and reached out to the object.

      To his surprise, the other scavenger that was working behind him had jumped up and ran over, throwing himself onto him. They struggled for a minute, the first scavenger trying to heave his attacker off his back, while the other attempted to blind him by scratching his face with his long claws and simultaneously reached for the valuable object in the rubble. The first scavenger began elbowing his attacker and yelled, "It's mine! Get off!"

      His attacker finally backed off, climbing off his back and walking away. He started hissing at him in another language, long whistles thrown in his direction. Then he-- _it?_ \-- turned around and ran away, and the first scavenger caught a glance at his scale-y green skin. He shook his head, trying to ignore him, and got back to work.

      The shiny object was still there, untouched and unharmed. He picked it up, moving a piece of rubble off it, and dusted it off. Long and cylindrical, thin enough to hold in your hand comfortably, but large enough that it wouldn't slip through your fingers. A silver color under a heavy layer of dirt, and a small red button in the middle. He cautiously pressed the button, and a bright blue beam of light immediately shot out from the top. Keeping the weapon a nice, safe distance away from his body, he waved it around, listening to the gentle hum it made when it moved.

      This...this would make him a lot of money. Easily. Polish it off and clean it up, find the right smuggler, make up a nice little speech...he'd get quite a large reward. It'd make him look good to the other smugglers. Maybe rummaging though a pile of junk all day really _did_ pay off in the end.

 

 

_D'Qar, Rebellion Base. One month after the destruction of Starkiller Base_

 

"Finn."

      Finn's eyes fluttered open. The first thing he noticed was how bright it was, especially since the last thing he remembered seeing was darkness, cold, lonely darkness. Just as his eyesight was starting to improve and things around the bright room got clearer, a dark figure stepped in front of him, blocking most of the blinding light. When he was finally able to recognize the figure he tried to mumble his name. "Poe?"

      "Hey, man. How's it going?" Poe asked, even though it was somewhat unnecessary--he _did_ just wake up, and they could only expect he'd be a little out of sorts.

      Finn tried lifting his arm--it felt really heavy all of a sudden--to shield his eyes from the light. "Poe?" he asked again, a little louder this time, after finally finding his voice. He looked around the room. It was a small area with nothing in it but the hard beds he was laying on, a bunch of beeping machines surrounding it, and two chairs placed by the door. "What happened?" Suddenly he was struck with realization. He had started to remember what happened. Han dying, the woods on Starkiller Base, and...Rey. Immediately after realizing this, Finn attempted to get up, trying his hardest to swing his legs over the side of the bed they had laid him on.

      Poe, understanding what he was trying to do, held his friend back and placed his hands on Finn's shoulders. He pushed him back until he was sitting back on the bed. "Finn, you just woke up. You need to take it easy, man."

      "Where's Rey? Is she okay? Did we defeat Kylo Ren?" Finn demanded, each question asked more urgently than the last. "I need to know it she's okay."

      "Your friend? She's fine," Poe answered, remembering the girl that flew in with Chewbacca and an injured and unconscious Finn. He was told that she was the one to pilot the Millennium Falcon, with Chewie, of course. Poe found that impressive, at least for the little information he knew about her. "She was able to defeat Kylo Ren and bring you back here--to the rebel base--with Chewie," he said, avoiding Finn's other question

      Finn, completely relieved, sat back the wall, only to find that it caused severe pain. It felt like fire was ripping through his back, leaving no spot unburnt by the flames. He reached for his back, but that only made the pain worse, the stretching of his skin pulling everything tighter. "What-- _ouch_ \--what happened to me?"

      "Rey told us that during your battle with Ren, he slashed your back with his lightsaber. After the fight, Rey and Chewie flew you back here. Nurse says it looks worse than it is, but it's going to leave a nasty scar. She said you'd need lots of rest and exercise to build back those muscles."

      Finn took a deep breath, fighting through the pain. "And Rey? Where is she?"

      "Uh...about that," Poe said, and laughed nervously. "We, um, we don't really know where _exactly_ she is."

      "What?! What do you mean you don't know where she is?"

      "Well, she left on some sort of secret mission for the General. She wouldn't tell us what it was about, so everyone eventually stopped asking. That was more than a month ago, and we still haven't heard anything back. Every time we try to communicate, all we get back is static."

      Finn was confused. Why would she leave? And what was the mission about? Finding Luke Skywalker was his first guess, but if it was, why haven't they returned yet? Finn just stared blankly at the wall in front of him. If no one was going to tell him where Rey went, or why she went there, Finn was just going to have to find out on his own. How ever long that would take.


	4. III

 

_Yavin. 15 years after the Battle of Endor._

 

"Luke, wait!" Leia desperately called after her brother as she ran out into the dark corridor, deciding to follow him after he made an abrupt, somewhat dramatic exit. She stood in the middle of the long, dimmed hallway, the darkness behind her highlighting the bright white clothing she seemed to always dress in. She wore her favorite black boots, and kept her feet firmly planted on the ground. She needed answers, she _deserved_ answers, and she sure as hell wasn't moving until he gave her some.

      Just a little ways down the corridor, Luke slowed down and came to a stop, standing perfectly still, his cloaked back turned away from Leia. He wanted to leave, he wanted to run away from his problems, but he couldn't just leave his sister. He couldn't leave his friends, his nephew. And although leaving was probably the best for everyone at the moment, he had made a split-second decision based on gut instinct and his connection to the Force to stay with them. If he had just dealt with this problem earlier, at the first troubling signs, if he had just taught him better, or had been more cautious...maybe things would be different for him. For everyone. Choosing to face his issues, Luke deliberately turned around, taking his time, keeping his eyes on the hard stone floor. Barely audible to Leia, Luke whispered her name, "Leia..."

      "Just tell me. Do you think there's something wrong?" Leia was prepared for anything, she had given the subject a lot-- _a lot_ \--of thought the past several days, and she had made up her mind earlier. If Luke thought something was seriously wrong, she would do anything and everything in her power to help her son. When he didn't answer immediately, Leia started to get impatient. "Luke!"

      He looked up, pain and regret clearly visible in his eyes. "Leia...yes," he said, not without difficulty. This was partially his fault, and he knew he needed to face this problem. "There is something wrong. It...it may not be fatal to his training, but it could potentially be very dangerous. If we don't deal with this right...he could do something stupid. He could hurt a lot of people."

      "Can't you do anything? It's not too late, he's--"

      "He's a fourteen year old boy! He's too far along in his training, Leia! Years! I've been instructing him for _years_. I can't just change everything we've been working for, I can't just turn on him like this!" Luke yelled, getting angry. Not at Leia. At himself. He was his nephew's _teacher_. This was his _job_. And he couldn't seem to do it right. Frustrated, Luke tightly squinted his eyes closed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

      Leia held back tears and trie to over come a lump in her throat. She was having difficulty getting words out. "But it can't be that bad, right? You--you can just...," she trailed off, not entirely sure what she was saying. Could anything be done? Or was it already too late for him?

      "Look, Leia. He's pulling his power, his control over the Force, everything from the wrong emotions. He's scared, and angry, and hateful towards others. You can't just...," he managed to say, then paused to gather his thoughts. "All of a sudden, he's being aggressive in his fighting. In all the years I've taught him, I've never seen that in him before."

      Leia was trying hard to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. Her son, her sweet baby boy...he wasn't like this. Leia knew that Jedi were only supposed to use their power for knowledge and defense. Never for attack. Never for their own selfish desires. She knew Luke worked hard to become a Jedi, to focus his mind and clear it of any hatred that dwelled there. She just wished her son could learn too. Because if he didn't, the Jedi may have been training the most powerful, dangerous opponent they've seen in years.

 

~•~

 

_Ahch-To. Present Day._

     

      "Now, the key to this movement is all in the swing of your wrist and the turn of your forearm. The technique is difficult to master, as everything is, but with focus and practice, I'm positive you'll master it in no to time. It's truly a useful swing for defense and a good one to have, just in case something goes wrong. It comes in handy more often than not, but it's not very common among the Jedi."

      "Why is that?" Rey asked, deactivating her saber and lowering her arm. Her knees were sore from keeping them bent for hours at a time, a nasty bruise on her arm was still healing from the rogue rock that she accidentally sent flying in her own direction, and she was sporting new callouses on her hands, especially on her right fingers. The past couple weeks had been tough on her, mentally and physically, but she could handle it. Pulling through during extreme circumstances had become a regular occurrence on Jakku, and after blinding sandstorms, tricky moves from the insides of decades-old, abandoned Stardestroyers, and a few particularly violent, aggressive scavengers who didn't get as good a deal on a part or two, Rey was used to pushing her physical abilities to the limit.

      Luke thought she was making exceptionally good progress in the short month she had been training with him. She was talented with a lightsaber, her skill improving greatly in only a few weeks, especially since she had started as an untrained rookie with a natural aptitude for it, and quickly became a proficient, skilled user. And she was very strong with the Force, the energy in the air surrounding her seeming to instinctively pull to her and respond profoundly when her mind was focused. And that was the only problem. She had trouble focusing. Her mind would frequently drift off and she'd start thinking about something. It was possible she was just worried about the Resistance, or she was upset about Han, but to Luke, it felt like it was something more. She was concerned about a single person, someone she deeply cared for, maybe even came to love, and based on the feeling he got about it, their wellbeing or safety was in jeopardy in some way.

      He could understand that. During his training, he knew his friends were in danger. He wanted to help them, to save them, and despite the warnings he was given, he still ended up walking straight into a trap and putting himself right in the face of danger. Now, he could only hope Rey didn't make the same mistake he did. All he could do was train her to use her abilities, teach her about focus and acceptance and peace, warn her about the danger of being fearful and angry and hateful. But he wasn't worried; he was training a smart, resourceful, curious girl, who had already turned away from the Dark Side's cold grasp. He smiled, recalling the memory and dismissing his mistrustful thoughts; he had nothing to worry about. Smiling lightly, he answered, "Well, it really depends on your opponent and their preference of the technique, but there are other defenses that can be used. Most Jedi simply favor those over this one because they're easier to maneuver around an opponent. Since your saber swings behind your back, there is a brief moment you're left undefended. But if you do if right, they won't stand a chance."

      Rey just nodded silently and took up her fighting stance, her knees bent with one foot planted a foot behind the other. She kept her right arm, bent at the elbow, straight out in front of her body, while the other held back at her side. Luke watched as she activated her yellow saber and started the complicated movement again, swinging it by her side then behind her body. He stopped her and corrected her form, explaining that if she didn't want that vulnerable second it left her unprotected, she'd have to swing faster and move her wrist to the right and downwards.

      For the rest of the day, Rey practiced the swing and Luke supervised. She messed up a few times, but instead of getting angry and quitting, she got a really determined look on her face that seemed to say she was frustrated with herself and not going to give up until she had it down perfectly and could do it with her eyes closed. (She could). Luke was amazed. The last person he trained would get furious with him and storm away fuming. She was the exact opposite, she didn't even need him to push her or reassure her progress. Rey really couldn't be more different then Ben.

   

**Thanks for reading, as always! Please comment what you think! Also, the swing I was tryna explain is the ObiAni Spin, and unless you can see it or do it, it's kinda hard to explain.**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks you for reading! Tell me what you think/ what can be improved on. Also on Wattpad under same title. May the Force be with you!  
> -Benji


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